Trusted content creates halo effect for trust of ads

A new Australian study by Galaxy Research into consumer trust in content and advertising across 10 media channels has found a direct correlation between the two, with ads in news media ranked as the most trusted.

The ADTRUST study1, where Galaxy surveyed 2,863 Australians aged 18+, scored the various media channels on an established Ad Trust Matrix2 that measures trust across 20 individual elements, grouped into four key characteristics – Reliability, Usefulness, Affect and Willingness to rely on. This revealed key insights into the degree in which audiences trust the advertising and content they consume.

The study found that an audience’s (i.e. users of that media) trust in ads was greatest in Newspapers, followed by Cinema, Radio, Magazines and Digital news media. Ads in Social media were the least trusted, followed by Search and Any (other) websites. Digital news media was the most trusted of any digital channel.

For full results download the report below.

Note: The position on the horizontal scale indicates users trust in ads (- / +). The size of the circle indicates users trust in content. (Red – / Blue +)

Galaxy Research online questionnaire, June 2017 was conducted among a nationally representative sample of 2,863 Australians aged 18 years and older. Results displayed are Net ADTRUST and Net CONTENT TRUST which, on a scale from 1 to 7, is Percentage agreeing (5,6,7) less Percentage disagreeing (1,2,3).